A couple days ago, it was
released that Robin Williams had passed away due to a suicide. I looked up Wikipedia’s article on him to
learn more about him. They quoted a
psychologist as saying it was well known that he struggled with bipolar
disorder and depression. Another way to
say it is that he struggled with manic depression, and depression, but perhaps
that just shows the redundancy of it?
Mental illness is a struggle for
many within the Church and outside the Church.
Unfortunately, “48% of evangelical, fundamentalist, or born-again
Christians agree prayer can overcome mental illness. Fifty percent of those 18-29 years old say
prayer and Bible study could overcome mental illness. 35% of all ages agree with the statement, “With
just Bible study and prayer, ALONE, people with serious mental illness like
depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia could overcome mental illness.” (for more details go to http://blog.lifeway.com/newsroom/2013/09/17/half-of-evangelicals-believe-prayer-can-heal-mental-illness/
)
I was diagnosed with bipolar
disorder at the age of 17 after a 2 week stint in the mental hospital with a
severe case of mania that ultimately resulted in a temporary state of
psychosis. When I finally got better, I
learned all I could about the disorder, much like anyone does when they’re
diagnosed with something fairly significant.
My mom and I both came to the conclusion that Robin Williams had to be
bipolar. My psychologist disagreed but I
always held to that. His quick wit and
comedy were like one constant episode of mania or what it at least felt like
when I experienced mania.
With his suicide, it brought up a
lot of stuff for me like it always does when someone famous or someone I might
know kills themselves. Self-doubts emerge, usually along the lines of, “What if I'm next?” “That could be me someday.” And other doubts along those same lines.
Then, and I have to say this
happens a lot when discussing mental illness, well-meaning Christians end up
doing quite a bit of damage when they try and help fellow believers. We don’t want or need a cliché. We don’t want or need to be told if we just
prayed harder, believed more, had more faith, chose joy instead of depression
or whatever the latest form of spirituality self-help may be during that time. We don’t want or need you to pretend to
understand something if you’ve never experienced it before.
We need your help in those
times. We need a listening ear as we try
and figure out what’s going on. We need
a strong community that exudes the love of Christ and reminds us of who we are
in Christ. We need you to point us back
to Jesus in the midst of our darkness.
We need you to lovingly confront us and tell us we need professional
help when it is warranted. We need you
to stand by us and not give up on us no matter how difficult it becomes. We need you to realize mental illness is very
real and that it is multi-faceted and needs to be treated holistically. We need you to realize we’re scared and
telling us to pray more and have more faith isn’t helping. Chances are we’re already praying a ton and
already putting all our faith and trust in God.
Can we please agree that
sometimes God heals us and sometimes He assures us His grace is sufficient? Can we please agree that sometimes depression
is caused by spiritual reasons and sometimes it’s not? Can we please agree that mental illness is
complex and tricky and that we’ll all tread lightly, lovingly and gracefully
when talking about the subject? Thank
you for listening.
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